JOURNEY times between Warrington, Liverpool and Manchester will be slashed by a newly announced £530m rail investment programme.
The Northern Hub study identifies action that needs to be taken to keep pace with the growing population and economy of the major northern cities and towns.
The scheme will focus on removing the current bottle neck in the Manchester area and allow for a huge increase in the number of trains travelling along existing routes
It will also open up new ones such as direct links with Bradford and Halifax. Journey times to the north east will also be significantly reduced.
Leader of Warrington Borough Council Ian Marks said: “The upgrading of the entire rail network in the north is long over due and once complete will see our business and local economies benefit greatly.
“I am also very pleased to see that direct rail links from Central Station straight to Manchester Airport are part of the plans.
“Warrington is strategically placed to feel the full benefit of this modernisation and I look forward to the plans taking shape.”
JOURNEY times between Warrington, Liverpool and Manchester will be
slashed by a newly announced £530m rail investment programme.
£530m rail boost for town
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
2 Comments
WRONG. I have read the full report. The option to which this refers will withdraw all long distance services through Central (FTPE & EMT) and replace them with a Semi fast service run by Northern. This will likely increase journey times partly because of the more stops and the old trains for which Northern in the current franchise (until 2015) have no intention to replace.
All long distance services will be transfered to the Newton line and probably serve Victoria instead of Piccadilly. The airport extension is subject to a 4th platform at the airport and competition with other TOC’s that want to serve the same. Currenlty the Northern service that goes to the Aiprort via Newton is frequently late or curtailed to Piccadilly.
The only benefit in the report is that moving the fast trains to Victoria will free up space at Picadilly thus limiting the delays. Also ATW service from Bank Quay will go 1/2 hourly off peak as well as is now at peak. However this takes 34 mins to get to Manchester as opposed to the 18 mins from Central currenlty with FTPE.
The devil is in the detail I know but this is twice recently that the local council have been duped regarding rail in Warrington. With the Newton route being electrified this in the long term means it is unlikely Central will be and unlikely that the long distance routes will ever comeback as they are prime for electricifcation particularly FTPE.
Sorry but I read this as a downgrading of services and the route through Central.
I agree – east-west journeys through Warrington are likely to become nothing more than a commuter service as far as Manchester – which will be OK but the town is likely to lose direct services to Leeds and the North East, as well as to Sheffield and the East Midlands. With the speeding up of service between Manchester and Liverpool, there’s not even a guarantee of an easy connection from Bank Quay to Newton-le-Willows to connect onto these diverted services here,